God Dethroned – ‘The World Ablaze’ – Album Review

Since the early ’90s, God Dethroned have been deafening Metal fans with their crushing blend of brain pulping guitar riffs, spliced with catchy choruses and dreamy melodic breaks. Line-up changes and the death of Metal Blade label boss Michael Trengert failed to slow the onslaught of this quality European Metal band.

From start to finish you know what this band is about. The noise is almost bone breaking, and if you are looking for music to settle down and sip your tea with, then prepare to be disappointed. Instead you will be driven to Metal heaven as Henri Sattler uses his voice as a metaphorical hand to push down your neck and rip out your jugular. His vocals have certainly matured since the band’s early records, and fans of the band will be sure to enjoy his haunting screams.

The main focus of the album, the title track ‘The World Ablaze,’ has the quality to become a live favourite, building from a slow gut wobbling bass drum, reaching a crescendo of machine gun snare and pummeling guitar, punctuated by a thoughtful and well placed guitar solo showing the band’s musical prowess.

From then the album continues to peck away at your eardrums, but what God Dethroned have managed to do is merge the aggressive tones of Death Metal noise with melody. The perfect example of this would be ‘On the Wrong Side of the Wire,’ a fiendishly catchy track, and another song which will surely feature often in live sets on future tours.

With this album God Dethroned are finishing up a spectacular trilogy of albums based on World War One. Does this album live up to the previous two? The fans will answer that question, but God Dethroned are definitely a band firing on all cylinders. The adrenalin oozes throughout The World Ablaze, an album that ends the story of a war fraught with madness. God Dethroned has managed to capture this madness in the music – loud, brash and punch in the face obvious! Surely this is how Heavy Metal should be.